Associate Professor Doru Costache

Associate Professor, St Cyril's Coptic Orthodox Theological College
PhD Theol (Bucharest, 2000) BTh (Bucharest, 1993)

The Very Revd Dr Doru Costache is an Associate Professor of Theology (Patristic Studies) at St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College, since 2017. He has over 25 years of experience in the tertiary sector, in Australia and Romania. He also is a research director of ISCAST (the Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology), since 2021, and coeditor of Christian Perspectives on Science and Technology, since 2022. Chairman of SCD’s Theology Research Network, since 2023.

He is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) and of ISCAST, since 2020, as well as a member of the International Orthodox Theological Association and ANZATS, since 2022, and of the International Association of Patristic Studies, since 2013. He was a Selby Old Fellow in Religious History of the Orthodox Christian Faith at the University of Sydney Library (2021-2022), and an Honorary Associate in Studies in Religion at the same university (2017-2023). He co-chaired the ‘Cosmology’ group of the Templeton World Charity Foundation-funded project ‘Science and Orthodoxy around the World’ (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, 2020-2023).

He is a Romanian Orthodox protopresbyter, with over 25 years of ordained experience, currently ministering to St Gregory’s Orthodox Mission (Mona Vale, NSW), since 2017.

Publications
Books
  • 2021

    Humankind and the Cosmos: Early Christian Representations

    Brill 2021.

  • 2019

    Dreams, Virtue and Divine Knowledge in Early Christian Egypt

    Authors - Bronwen Neil, Doru Costache, Kevin Wagner, Cambridge University Press.

  • 2019

    Reading Scripture in the Orthodox Church: The Festal Cycle

    AIOCS 2019.

Journal Articles
  • 2022

    ‘Affirming Creation’s Goodness in a Time of Pandemic: Patristic Insights’

    in Colloquium 54:2.

  • 2020

    ‘A Note on Evagrius’ Cosmological and Metaphysical Statements’

    The Journal of Theological Studies 71:2, 718-730.

  • 2020

    ‘Strange Bedfellows? Orthodox Perspectives on Theology, Spirituality, Science, and Technology’

    Technology’ Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 65:2, 5-25.

  • 2019

    ‘The Orthodox Doctrine of Creation in the Age of Science.’

    Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies 2:1, 43-64.

Book Chapters and Refereed Articles
  • 2022

    ‘The Trees of Paradise: Patristic Perspectives.’

    In: Ciprian Costin Apintiliesei and Constantin Pogor (eds). Tendances et directions dans les recherches actuelles des théologiens orthodoxes roumains de la diaspora. Patrimoines. Paris: 177-196.

  • 2022

    ‘Burning Hearts: Emmaus as Realised Eschatology in the Philokalic Tradition.’

    In: Peter G. Bolt and Sehyun Kim (eds). God’s Grace Inscribed on the Human Heart: Essays in Honour of James R. Harrison. Early Christian Studies 23. Macquarie Park: SCD Press: 61-78.

  • 2022

    ‘Theological Anthropology Today: Panayiotis Nellas’s Contribution.’

    In: Kostas Tampakis and Haralampos Ventis (eds). Orthodox Christianity and Modern Science: Past, Present and Future. Science and Orthodox Christianity 3. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers: 167-182.

  • 2021

    'One Description, Multiple Interpretations: Suggesting a Way Out of the Current Impasse.’

    In: Christopher C. Knight and Alexei V. Nesteruk (eds). Orthodox Christianity and Modern Sciences: Theological, Philosophical, Scientific and Historical Aspects of the Dialogue. Science and Orthodox Christianity 2. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers: 33-49.

  • 2020

    ‘A Note on Evagrius’ Cosmological and Metaphysical Statements

    In: The Journal of Theological Studies 71:2 (2020) 718-730.

  • 2020

    Maximus the Confessor and John Damascene’s cosmology

    In: John Slattery (ed). The T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and the Modern Sciences (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2020) 81-91.

  • 2020

    Andrew of Crete’s Great Canon, Byzantine Hermeneutics, and Genesis 1-3

    In: Andrew Mellas and Sarah Gador-Whyte (eds). Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics in Byzantium. Byzantina Australiensia 25 (Leuven and Boston: Brill, 2020) 67-85.

  • 2019

    The Orthodox Doctrine of Creation in the Age of Science

    In: Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies Vol 2 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) 43-64.

  • 2019

    A Theology of the World: Dumitru Stăniloae, the Traditional Worldview, and Contemporary Cosmology

    In: Vasilios N. Makrides and Gayle Woloschak (eds). Orthodox Christianity and Modern Science: Tensions, Ambiguities, Potential. Science and Orthodox Christianity 1 (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2019) 205-22.

  • 2019

    Christian Gnosis: From Clement the Alexandrian to John Damascene

    In: Garry W. Trompf, Gunner B. Mikkelsen, and Jay Johnston (eds). The Gnostic World (Routledge Worlds London and New York: Routledge, 2019) 259-70.

  • 2019

    Byzantine and Modern Orthodox Gnosis: from the Eleventh to the Twenty-First century

    In: Garry W. Trompf, Gunner B. Mikkelsen, and Jay Johnston (eds). The Gnostic World (Routledge Worlds London and New York: Routledge, 2019) 426-35.